Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters. I do own the penguin Alex in this story.

Julien opened his muzzle but no words came out. He glanced from side to side, trying to think of something to say. I don't think I should be giving away her secret. Should I pretend like I've no idea what he's talking about? That would make me look stupid! The other penguins have not found my music thingy yet, but they are looking for it.

He felt uncomfortable under Skipper's stare and he knew if he didn't say anything soon the penguin would suspect something was up. Finally he said," I haven't been seeing her since you silly penguins left with her earlier."

I'm the king! he told himself. I can lie to whoever I want to be lying to!

At first, Skipper looked like he didn't believe the ring-tailed lemur and like he wanted nothing more than to argue with him. But finally the penguin just shook his head. "Fine," he said, rolling his eyes. "Whatever. I'll go look somewhere else." The leader looked angrily at Julien, but he didn't say anything else. He did a backflip out of the lemur habitat and disappeared behind the wall.

Once he was gone, Julien let out a sigh and said out loud," That was being a close one!"

Maurice nodded in agreement, still staring after the penguin leader.

A moment later, Alex jumped back on the platform and ran to Julien. She hugged him, much to the king's annoyance. He growled a little under his breath as he pushed her off, telling her," You are being new here, so you don't know that I hate being hugged when I'm not the one who's doing the hugging."

Alex blinked, but nodded.

"Another thing," he added, leaning closer to her," if you're going to be staying here for a while, you should be knowing something very, very, very important." He pointed to his feet as he said," There is absolutely no touching of the royal feet!"

The penguin looked confused, Julien noticed, but he was glad she nodded anyways.

Informing her about his "no touching the royal feet" rule made him think of something. He turned to Maurice and asked," Have you been seeing Mort?" He didn't really care about the annoying little lemur, but he missed kicking him, and right about now, feeling so annoyed that the penguins wanted to use his kingdom for some hide-and-seek game, he needed someone to kick.

The aye-aye shook his head as he looked around. "He was here this morning, but I haven't seen him since the zoo closed." Maurice walked to the edge of the platform and started calling Mort's name, but there was no answer.

Julien noticed the female penguin watching them. She walked over to him. "Mort's that little mouse-looking lemur, right?" she asked.

"Yes, and he's so annoying," the king had to add, rolling his eyes. He thought maybe he's gone off by himself, but he knew Mort usually went crazy if he was away from King Julien and his royal feet for long.

Before Alex could answer, Maurice reappeared. "He's not in the habitat, Your Majesty," he reported worriedly. Even Julien started to fear the worse. He hated the annoying little creature, but he didn't like the idea of him wandering off by himself or laying somewhere, hurt.

"Well, go find him," he ordered his adviser as he pushed him away. "If he's not here, I can't be taking my anger out on him!"

"Alright, alright." Maurice jumped off the platform and onto the wall, disappearing over it. Julien smiled, satisfied, glad that his subject did whatever he said without question… well most of the time, anyways.

Julien then realized that he was left alone with the female penguin. He turned back to her and saw that she was staring at him with wide eyes. He walked over to her, trying not to show how uncomfortable he felt about being by himself with a stranger, and the daughter of that bossy penguin at that.

"Your Highness?" Alex's voice broke into Julien's troubled thoughts, and he felt a delighted shiver run up his spine when she called him that. "Why do you want to take out your anger on the little lemur?" she continued after a few moments when Julien didn't answer. "Isn't he one of your loyal subjects?"

Instead of answering right away, he began to think. Maybe I'll be liking this penguin after all, he thought. Nobody besides Maurice and Mort looked at him as a king ever since he left his home on Madagascar. He looked down at Alex and saw her staring back at him, but she didn't say anything else like she was waiting for him to reply to her question.

"You see," Julien explained as he walked over to his throne and hopped onto it," Mort worships me, but he's so annoying." He fell on his seat with a groan to make his point. He looked down to see that Alex was watching him with huge, interested eyes, not missing a thing the king did. Not even Maurice seems this loyal to me… I'm starting to really like this penguin… Maybe I could be getting a new subject to my kingdom? He crossed his legs and glanced down at the penguin, adding," And he's always touching the royal feet, and he's just plain ugly!"

Alex blinked, staring up at the lemur, but Julien had run out of things to say. He threw his legs across one of the arms of his chair and laid his head back, resting his paws on his stomach. He looked up at the sky, once more thinking about his music thingy that the penguins were trying to find for him. He hoped they would get back soon; he was getting impatient.

"Your Majesty?"

Julien's thoughts were interrupted, which annoyed the king, but instead of snapping at the penguin, he sighed. He realized she had called him something only Maurice and Mort and the other lemurs of Madagascar labeled him when he became king, and suddenly he wasn't upset anymore. It felt good to have more people in his kingdom.

"Yes?" the king asked, but without taking his eyes off the sky as he watched clouds drift by. He loved peaceful days like this one. Even with craziness like this female penguin showing up and Skipper and his team turning the zoo upside down, he felt so tranquil.

"I was just wondering if you…" Alex's voice trailed away, and Julien heard a shuffling noise as if she was shifting her feet. She didn't try to finish her sentence.

Julien tore his gaze from the sky and glanced down at her. "Well?" he prompted.

He was surprised to see how awkward she looked, as if she was regretting speaking. Finally she took a deep breath and said," I was just wondering if you knew what a MP3 Player is? You seem like you really wanted Kowalski and the others to find it," she quickly added when Julien raised a questioningly eyebrow. "But it just felt like you didn't really know what it is."

Julien sat up in surprise and looked down at the penguin. At first he was going to tell her that of course he knew what it was, because as king he knew everything. But then he sighed and said," Fine, I don't know exactly what it is… But I heard the kids say something about a 'fat beat' or something, and that's all I needed to be hearing! I need to shake my 'thing' to this beat." He jumped off his throne and landed in front of Alex, leaning closer to her. "Do you know what this music thingy is?"

Alex nodded. "I know some things about MP3 Players," she told him, sounding a little proud of herself. "I know that humans put songs on them and listen to them with a cord thing called headphones, but unless the guys can find you a pair, your MP3 Player will basically be useless. I'm sorry, my king." She looked down as if she thought it was her fault and Julien blinked at her, taken aback.

Suddenly his tail shot up when a thought hit him. A cord? Could that whatsit I found outside my kingdom be what she calls 'headphones'? "What does this cord look like?" he asked the penguin.

"Stringy, white, cord, plays music through ear shaped speakers."

He thought for a moment, then, without replying to the penguin, he turned and ran across the platform, heading to the bar. When he got there, he jumped over the stools and landed on the other side of the counter. He grabbed the snake-like whatsit on the shelf and ran back to Alex. He opened his hands, and the young penguin looked at what he was holding.

"That's headphones, alright!" she said cheerfully. "Where did you find them?"

"After the kids left, I saw that they dropped something, so I went to check it out, and I found this." The king lifted the cord in the air. Then he lowered it and studied it closely. The more stuff he learned around humans, the more they interested him. Now he couldn't wait for the penguins to get back, so he can find out how to work the MP3 Player. Excitement ran through his body as he looked the cord up and down. He held onto it with one paw and let the other end fall to the ground. Then he used his other hand to lift the end that split in two and studied it. Weird…

He began to get really impatient now. "What's taking them so long?" he demanded.

"I'm sure they'll be back soon," Alex promised calmly. "Have patience, my king."

Julien was so restless that he couldn't enjoy Alex calling him "her king". He jumped back onto his throne, the cord still in his paws. He began to eye it and made one end of it move back and forth in front of him while he kept the other end still.

Hurry up, penguins! he thought as he watched the cord swing in his paw.

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